Maple Syrup Time!

Outside the sugar shack

I love the soft borders between winter and spring that occur where I live: the snow melting into glistening water droplets falling from branches, the first chirps of returning birds, and the reemergence of the best sugar product out there, maple syrup. When I was a child I remember my first trip to the sugar bush and how a simple, delicious treat was created by pouring syrup on fresh snow; better than anything from a store. The tradition has continued with trips back to the bush with my own children: they are run in conservation areas and those are maintained by the sale of maple treats at the end of the educational tour. For kids, and their parents, there is no downside! In this case, I will own up: I used the auto setting on my camera because mother nature provided perfect light and Photoshop let me add the finishing touches once I was back home.

Enjoying maple lollipops

Winter's Beauty

In Toronto we are used to snow (and any Canadians from anywhere else can bite their tongues--I know what you're thinking), but this year has been exceptional. The last time I remember this much was more than a decade ago, pre-digital camera, when I shot beautiful photos of the piles taller than me with my Pentax K1000. It's been a banner year again for both snow and the easy, beautiful photos that come with it. Here is one to share and, later, to scrap; can't wait!

ISO 200, F3.6, 1/320th

It's Fall...Almost!

The trees think it is fall even if the temperature hasn't figured it out yet. It has been in the 20s (that's 70s for the Fahrenheit'ers) for more than a week now; summer weather. I know in a week or two when the air has gone crisp I will want this weather back, but for now I am enjoying shooting the colour celebration that fall has always been here. Every year the colours are a little different, more yellow some years, more red another. We will see what this year has to show!

ISO 100, F5.6, 1/160

ISO 100, F4.5, 1/200

ISO 100, F3.6, 1/160

ISO 100, F3.6, 1/500

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

What photographer doesn't love a trip to the zoo, especially on an overcast day with no shadows, no crowds, a great camera and lots of happy animals? These photos were all taken on my recent trip to the Toronto Zoo, including the Canadian section that I had not been to in years: it has a beautiful, fully natural pond that let me quietly grab dozens of swan photos, including some rather unconventional ones.

The zoo is a great place to experiment for anybody trying to "learn" their digital camera because there are photographic challenges exclusive to it as a location. For example, shooting through glass and fences are things that can scare off some but with the manual and override options on digital cameras today, and the ability to take hundreds of photos without "wasting film", there is really nothing to lose but a bit of extra time to capture great photos. For fences, the key is to use your manual focus setting and a very narrow focal length (ideally F4.0 or lower) to blur them out (e.g. the tiger head-shot below). For quick animal shots, using the panning quick-setting can be a good idea as can selecting your camera's shutter priority feature and upping the shutter speed to 1/1000 of a second or faster. In some of my own shots I chose to use an aperture priority because I could get the essential depth that I wanted and my camera very nicely chose my film speed to match (not something any film camera would have let me do!)

I took more than a hundred photos, and my daughter almost matched me, so it was hard to pick just a few to share with you here. Please enjoy...

ISO 100, 1/60, F8.0

ISO 100, 1/100, F8.0

ISO 100, 1/100, F8.0

ISO 100, 1/100, F8.0

ISO 200, 1/125, F7.1

ISO 200, 1/50, F7.1

ISO 1250, 1/640, F3.3, manual focus

ISO 200, 1/60, F7.1

ISO 200, 1/80, F8.0

ISO 100, 1/400, F5.6

Tomatoes On a Ledge

Plum tomatoes from my garden ripening on my kitchen window sill.

New Camera Experiment

For anyone who is starting into digital photography and does not want to invest in the current camera that everyone from amateurs to pros is hoping to have, the Canon Rebel, there are midrange options that are point and shoot friendly while still offering the flexibility for more artistic exploration. When I recently lost a digital camera and had to shop for a new one, the Rebel was on my wish list but there it had to stay so what to buy instead? I went back to my film photography roots and sourced out a Panasonic: what sold me was the Leica lens and the price tag, around $500 Canadian. When I took it out for its first night shooting, I was very pleasantly surprised at how manual I could go with it and how I could shoot photos like this one. For the die hard digital editors who want to know, yes, it also shoots in RAW. I did not get my wish list Rebel but I certainly got a camera that any serious amateur and even a pro would be happy to work with.